Supporting Sarah

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”

This past August, my sister Sarah went to the emergency room with a fever, severe back and stomach pains. After lots of tests and another trip back that week, the doctors ordered a CT scan of her upper abdomen, only to find a rare tumor on her pancreas. She has since been referred to the specialists at Mass General in Boston for further treatment beginning with a surgery called a distal pancreatectomy and splenectomy. Because the pancreas is located behind the stomach, this procedure can be very complicated and includes removing a fourth of the pancreas as well as the spleen. Only after the tumor is removed will a biopsy be done to see if further action is necessary.

Sarah is very lucky that this happened just shortly after she got insurance, but this unfortunately doesn’t cover everything. Gas, parking fees, copays, deductibles, and other expenses brought on by this unforeseeable situation are not within her budget, and the last thing she should be thinking about at a time like this is money.

I know the holidays are a tough time for everybody but at a time like this, every little bit counts. Please consider helping my sister navigate her way through this. Be the light at the end of the tunnel, the greener grass on the other side, the pot o gold at the end of the rainbow if you will. After all, we get by with a little help from our friends.

“The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater.”